COMMITMENT: TOYING OR TOTAL?

“We have here a quickly drawn portrait of three men toying with discipleship, but not totally committed. Each in his own way wants to put certain conditions on that commitment. But it won’t work, will it? The call is to unconditional commitment, commitment with no strings attached!

A few weeks ago I conducted a funeral service for one of the finest men I have ever known. He died at the age of eighty-four. The person who coined the word gentleman must have had someone like him in mind, because he was a gentle man. But at the same time, he had a tenacious sense of commitment. He was totally committed to his wife for more than sixty years. He was totally committed to his church. He was totally committed to God.

A couple of months before his death, he lost his sight. I went to minister to him, and he ministered to me. I was inspired by his response to blindness. He said, “For more than eighty years I have been able to see the beauties and the wonders of God’s creation. I had my sight and now I have lost it. Blessed be the name of the Lord!”

That is total commitment – commitment without conditions. It’s the stuff great people are made of. It’s Job, crying out in the midst of great pain: “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.” It’s Susanna Wesley, calling her children to her deathbed: “Children, as soon as I am released, sing a psalm of praise to God.” It’s the apostle Paul, writing from his prison cell: “Rejoice with me; again, I say, rejoice. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.””